"Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatsky Brothers
Temporarily e-shelved Quixote (I'm more than half way through) to quickly read Roadside Picnic (I want to read it and then re-watch Tarkovsky's Stalker ). Though the book and the film have similarities, I can certainly understand Tarkovsky's quip that they're nothing alike. Also, I probably half-agree with a friend who said she'd put Quixote down because it was too slapstick. I think it's more like: too much of a good thing is a bad thing. But that may also partly be a modern sensibility speaking. Anyway, I won't give up on the brave knight errant (seriously, though it takes some patience: I'm enjoying it), but I want him to rest before getting all banged up again. I'm also enjoying Berger's selected essays: finished those from Toward Reality ( Permanent Red in the UK) and have moved on to those from The Moment of Cubism. The only nits I have thus far are his "seeing things" in paintings and painters (he makes his evaluations soun...